EC boss calls for continous civic education...Daily Graphic (Spread)..Thurs. May29/08

Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

THE Electoral Commissioner, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has reminded Ghanaians that casting a vote is not the end of a citizen’s participation in a democratic process.
He has, therefore, called for a continuous electoral and civic education on the basic norms, principles and practices of democracy as a way of deepening democracy in the country.
Dr Afari-Gyan said this at the 2008 Accountants Conference by the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG)) in Accra yesterday.
Dr Afari-Gyan, who was speaking on the theme: “Deepening democracy and stability in Ghana”, also said, “By itself, holding elections does not mean democracy. However, elections are the only legitimate door to democratic leadership, and incontrovertible elections legitimate the government.”
He said it was for these reasons that it was important to educate all electoral stakeholders, including the government, political parties, candidates, voters, and security personnel for qualitative participation in the electoral process.
He, therefore, called on civil society to assume a greater role in voter and civic education, and also called on the business community to assist with funds.
Dr Afari-Gyan, who said the issue of deepening democracy entailed expanding the democratic space and achieving qualitative participation in the democratic process, enumerated issues related to deepening democratic practice in Ghana under six main headlines; which he said included expanding the democratic space, gender, electoral education, decentralisation, political parties and democratic accountability.
On the issue of expanding the democratic space, he said the passage of the Representation of People’s Amendment Act (ROPAA), the current discussion to extend the right to vote to prisoners and also the issue of how to bring more persons with disability into the electoral process and making it convenient for them to participate, would all aid in expanding the democratic space.
On gender, he said there was the need for a conscious effort to remove the barriers that had prevented women from participating equitably in national affairs.
On how democracy could be deepened through political parties, Dr Afari-Gyan called for an extended public support to parties that secured a publicly determined percentage of the popular vote at general election to show that they had substantial support among the people.
On deepening stability, he called for the economic well-being of the masses to be looked at, saying that poor people were easily irritable about niceties of democracy and were more likely to be apathetic towards politics and stay away from elections.
Both Nana Professor Ato Ghartey, President of the ICAG, and Mr Joseph Hyde, a past president of the institute, who chaired the programme, called on accountants to be truthful to their work and eschew corruption.